Thursday, February 25, 2010

Brian and I played the farewell game at my current apartment last night. My wife and I are closing later today on a house! It had been a while since we'd done any bocage fighting, and decided that would make a fitting farewell to the game room that has served me well!

Read on!

We rolled for the mission and came up with Encounter.

Brian was running US 3rd Armored Division tanks, and I was running trucked panzerpioneers.

Brian decided to start with his Engineers, 76s, and tank destroyers (carbine teams only) on the board.

I chose to begin with 1 panzerpioneer platoon, the panzer II Ls, and the Panthers.

The board. You can see the German forward objective on the right, and both US objectives deployed in the center top and top left. The German rear objective is just out of frame in the south behind the house.

The German near objective

The German far objective

The near objective

Panzerpioneers deployed on the german right.

Panzer IIs and HMGs deploy on the German left.

Panthers and mortars deploy in the center. The mortars never fire a shot through the entire game.

Engineers deploy on the German left.

The Green machine deploys in the US center, ready to push through the bocage

The game begins with the Panthers rolling forward and taking shots at the Shermans

The panzer IIs race to the flank to fire off machine gun rounds into the engineers

Pioneers dig in

The engineers take light casualties

The panthers knock out one 76

The AOP has no purpose other than to look neat

The Americans shift to the German right.

Then push through the gate into the bocage cell

The panthers, wishing to avoid being flanked, fall back across the bocage

The battlefield form the German left

The Americans prepare to crash through the bocage

The panthers can't get any shots off, so sit tight.

The first reserves arrive in the form of US Stuarts. Brian double times them across the backfield to reinforce the Engineers who are under constant fire from the Panzer IIs

The panthers still have no shots

The threat of the stuarts forces the panzer IIs to redeploy

The US bulldozer crushes a path through the bocage, allowing the green machine to follow

The battlefield from the German right.

The panzer IIs move into the bocage. The US carbine teams of the Tank Destroyers lurk in the adjacent cell.

The tanks are at a standstill.

More US reserves arrive! 4 Shermans come barreling down the road.

The US tanks in the center continue advancing.

The panzerwerfers, having only arrived from reserve in the previous turn, bring down a barrage on the engineers and shermans. Killing one stand of infantry and bailing a tank.

The panzerwerfers.

US Mortars arrive from reserve.

The panthers cover the panzerpioneers who get out of their foxholes and dive into the bocage

The US tanks lurk in the adjacent cell

The center of the board

The Stuarts prepare to swing around into the German flanks. You cannot see the HMG deployed behind the bocage to the right of the gate.

The US company commander comes forward and blasts a Panzer II.

Panzerpioneers arrive from reserve

The forward pioneers take up position.

On the German left, pioneers come on from reserve directly in front of the US Shermans!

The Shermans, Engineers, and Stuarts all retaliate. The pioneers ar punished.

The pioneers pushing deep into the enemy lines are hit by a mortar barrage temporarily stopping their advance.

The Panzer twos nip at the Stuarts, and knock one out!

The remaining panzerpioneers try to get out of dodge

The panthers crush into the bocage and race forward knocking out the Company commander (who jumps into the 2iC's tank).

The pioneers use their flame thrower to knock out a 76 and bail another. And then, even with the company commander, fail their tank terror!

The US company commander calls smoke in on the panthers, and springs his M10 ambush. The M10s swing around and open up with their 50 cals on the pioneers, killing one stand.

The pioneers on the German left continue being pummeled.

M10s

The embattled center

The German company commander calls in panzerwerfer fire, knocking out an M10.

The M10s swing to the German left, just behind the bocage.

US Shermans push deep into the German lines

The US again call in smoke on the German lines to suppress the company commander's ability to call in fire form the werfers.

Shermans and Stuarts are rolling up the German left!

The Panthers cross the bocage, knocking out the 2iC and the last 76. The panther commander gets stuck belly up.

**though I failed to get a picture of it, at this point Brian moved his Engineers out, but left both of his HMGs exposed to my own HQ HMG section that everyone (including you) have probably forgotten about. Both Engineer HMGs fell, knocking the platoon below half. They promptly ran off!

The US Shermans approach the rear German objective. The Objective is held by panzerwerfers (two of which crossed the bocage to escape 75mm stabilized death), and a platoon of panzerpioneers.

The Panzer IIs try to escape the marauding US Shermans

But unfortunately, the Sherman gunners have no problem knocking them out

The Panthers race forward, MGs and cannons blazing. They knock the M10s below half who then flee the field!

The pioneers in the rear dig in

The M10s disappear, but not before knocking out the belly up panther

The battlefield from the German right

The US Shermans are tantalizingly close.

At this point it's gotten late. I've lost my Panzer IIs and a panzerpioneer platoon. Brian has lost his engineers, M10s, and 76s. Brian attempts to concede, but I refuse to allow it. His 3 Shermans in my deployment zone are just as much as threat as my Panthers in his. I consider the game a draw. I do think my company is in a better way than his, but the game is still far from a foregone conclusion.

BRIAN'S CLOSING THOUGHTS:Looking back here are a few things I messed up on. First off I shouldhave kept my engineers out of sight. I lost to many stands holding anobjective that was not in any danger. They could have sat happily andsafe behind the hedgerow until they were needed to plug a gap. Tankdestroyers in bocage are a mixed blessing. It is nice to have the freemovement of the infantry before they pop but in reality it can bedifficult to move them into a flanking position to deal with the bigcats. Once they are popped you basically have to wait for thosepanthers to go belly up before you have a chance to deal with them. Iliked having the dozer and should have made more use of it. I alsoshould have remembered that the carbine teams from the tank destroyersget cautious movement. Biggest take home message is that you can'tplay a bocage from hell game on a weekday. I think we could have gonefor another hour, and as always a killer game on a great table.